Week 2: Bills Bludgeon Bucs
by pasaluki on Sep 20, 2009 11:25 PM EDT
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PrintThe Bills earned their first win today!
Edwards and Offense again plays well
Trent Edwards once again delivered in the clutch when the team needed to score. I can already tell that this offense at least so far has been light years ahead of what we have had the last few years. Trent did throw an interception but you could tell that while he was careful about how many chances he took down field,....he DID take chances down field. These high risk passes may have influenced the interception but they also was responsible for two very nice TD passes and at least one huge would be gainer that was dropped. Alex Van Pelt's gameplan seemed to be geared mostly for Trent's strengths and featured quite a few short passes. But the difference was instead of 4-5 yards these passes were going for 10 yards and a first down. Which was simply huge for keeping the offense on the field. I can see now that in my last recap I was wrong about how much time the no-huddle was taking off the clock because with this game the difference was marginal and overall wasn't even a factor.
The passing game looked alive, and I want to acknowledge that Derek Schouman has been playing very well, getting open and making plays when they are needed. He made a difference in today's game. More on him later.
Probably the numbers that jump out at me from the stat sheet was how well balanced the offense was with 220 net yards passing and 218 yards running. Being well balanced like the Bills were is a great sign because it shows how the Bills can gain yards in a variety of ways. The Bills were not one dimensional today and instead they forced Tampa Bay to become one dimensional. Good Stuff! As Tampa Bay radio play-by-play man Gene Deckerhoff said, "playing the Bills Offense today is like death from 1000 lashes." And the man who lashed them worst of all was one Fred Jackson.
Quite simply Jackson is playing out of this world
For the second week in a row (and really since the end of last season) Fred Jackson is creating havoc for other teams.
As of this post he is ranked #5 in the NFL in straight rushing yards and he's a back who is just as dangerous if not moreso as a passcatcher.
Jackson is just breaking down the defense of these other teams and opening up the offense. It isn't T.O. and Evans who are giving him opportunities, so much as it's him who is drawing in the defense and giving THEM opportunities. And so far nobody has found an answer for him.
To put it into perspective the Cowboys entire stable of very talented running backs had about 118 rushing yards against the Bucs, and Jackson himself had 163! Credit too goes to the Offensive line who are indeed worthy of praise and improved over last years squad, but the fact is during some of these plays Jackson is making these plays pretty much by himself or on second effort.
What this guy is doing is simply incredible and I didn't think I could compliment him anymore last week and he plays even better THIS week.
Defense once again delivers points
It was another rather rocky road for the Defense but during crunch time they were able to hold the Buccaneers and a few times they were even able to strike back.
I think we can put to rest the whole "Whitner is not a play maker argument"at least as long as he plays like this. After having a very solid if not exciting night at New England, Donte Whitner took an interception to the house and stood up the Buccaneers on 4th down. (The Bills are making teams who try to run on them on 4th and 1 pay)
They also improved a very important category: 3rd down!
Limiting the Buccaneers to only 25% completion percentage was key to their win.
One strange issue was they had trouble on 4th down and long. It was almost like the MORE desperate the Bucs were the more improbable completions they had (one of which was a very impressive one handed touchdown catch).
But desperation was the state the Bills defense kept the Bucs in, holding Tampa Bays supposedly feared running game under 57 measly yards.
Keith Ellison and Bryan Scott also were two important pieces on the defense, with Scott getting a controversial interception, and Ellison adding to his growing number of tackles. (as of now he is #2 in the NFL at 27 and is tied with another stellar tackler London Fletcher. He's also only 1 away from Panther Thomas Davis at 28)
The Dline also played as a unit and generated pressure (Leftwich was constantly taking shots).
Special Teams and Penalties.
The best part of the Bills special teams was perhaps the weakest last year: Kicker Rian Lindell has hit every single field goal he has been asked to hit. Our traditionally excellent coverage and return teams have looked a bit average in fact have times have cost the team substantially. This is one area where I hope progress will come soon. The Bills did better with Penalties in this game, limiting alot of the holding and false starts and also the basic penalties like not being lined up correctly (AHEM except you Josh Reed!) But the Buccaneers were just destroyed by penalties specifically Facemask.
Injuries may loom large
If one thing may have been understated it's how physical this game was. There was alot of HARD hitting. Just ask Trent Edwards who took a shot that I'm sure caused many Bills fan's hearts to skip a beat. Naturally along with the hard hits there were also injuries. On the Bills side OT Brad Butler and TE Derek Schouman seemed to injure their knees pretty badly, tests will be upcoming. TE Shawn Nelson, and CB Leodis McKelvin also left the game. Schouman was the only player carted off the field. With Derek Fine's injury, all three of Buffalo's Tight Ends are injured. And it remains to be seen if any can play. Fortunately the Bills have a player on the practice squad who is extremely well thought of on Buffalo Rumblings, Jonathan Stupar, who once broke his foot.
Stampede Sunday Game ball.
I missed those corny Stampede Sundae ice cream player interviews where they would give a make an exhausted player answer fan mail while awkwardly gripping a frozen half gallon of ice cream so in that spirit I'm bringin' it back minus the interviews and the ice cream and the...okay so it's NOTHING like it, I'm sorry. I do award an offensive AND defensive winner however!
(Week 2)
O:Fred Jackson
D: Donte Whitner
(Week 1)
O: Fred Jackson
Next week the Bills will be playing the dangerous Saints, and hopefully Buffalo will not lose any more CBs in the meantime. Thanks for reading!!
Just another great fan opinion shared on the pages of BuffaloRumblings.com.
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nice write up
cant complain about anything written here.
Kudos
REC’d
"In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time." (Robert Collier)
by norcaliangelsfan on Sep 20, 2009 11:42 PM EDT reply actions
Good write up
Bills will need to be mistake free though when the Saints come marching in,
Also, as good as Jackson is, I think it will be awesome having both he and Marshawn back there. If it isn’t, then we can talk about Jackson getting more touches, but in this offense, I think having both of them swtiching it up, or even in the same backfield, will be fun to watch
Jauron’s nuts must have dropped this year….Go Bills!
good review
I would also add that our d-line has looked much better this year compared to last and that Marcus Stroud and Kyle Williams are really collapsing inside running lanes. If there is an issue I think its that our d-line seems to wear down dramatically as games go on, maybe its an age factor.
T.O. has already dropped very important passes and it was good to see him score. Meanwhile, Lee Evans needs to get more involved. I just don’t get how coverage can be a problem against our talented receivers so for now I’ll assume that Trent is not reading the field well on occasion. He seems to hang onto the ball much more than I’ve seen him do in years past. I expect it to get better and hope its just Trent learning on the fly after being asked to go downfield for the first time in his career. He needs to make reads and he is in danger of becoming overdependent on Fred Jackson. Finally, T.O. was paid millions to improve our red zone offense, something he hasn’t done.
I had to write up some criticisms from the game because your post was excellent and I agree with all of it so I felt obligated to highlight some negatives.But outside of those things I mentioned, this game was great, our defense looks excellent this year, Fred is a star, TO and Lee made big time play, and Reed comes up big. Most importantly of all, our offensive line is not bringing us down, they are playing well.
We got your back Leodis!
I agree about Kyle Williams
Since Kyle came here, I was never impressed, but it does seem he has stepped up his game this year.
by The Buffalo Kid on Sep 21, 2009 2:35 AM EDT up reply actions
He was solid last year… just inconspicuous.
by WhyBillsWhy on Sep 21, 2009 10:10 AM EDT up reply actions
solid against the run, but lousy in the pass rush, I think the Bob Sanders Tae Kwon Doe lessons, have helped him step up his pass rush.
by The Buffalo Kid on Sep 22, 2009 2:51 AM EDT up reply actions
Kyle Williams has been excellent thus far. He made the big play yesterday that resulted in Whitner’s gift TD.
TO and Evans have definitely disappointed statistically thus far, but they’ve definitely opened up things underneath for Jackson and Schouman. Unfortunately, that can’t continue as we need to get those guys the ball a lot more often. TO needs to stop dropping passes, though that probably won’t change as he’s always dropped a ton of balls. He just needs more opportunities. I loved that we were throwing downfield to him more yesterday. Kudos to AVP. Evans had a few deep balls thrown his way, and also dropped a TD like TO. I really, really, really want someone to explain to me why Evans is used sparingly and only on deep balls? For those at the game yesterday, did he run any underneath stuff? We’re really paying him $9M a year to run a few fly patterns a game? This guy needs to get the ball elsewhere on the field. The Pats and Bucs must be selling out to shut him down completely, or he just isn’t being put in position to make many plays….
~K
"As the governor of Louisiana once said, the only way Chris Kelsay can lose his job is if he got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
Not to be a naysayer on a nice day...
But we should have put over 50 points on the Bucs, Edwards gave them a nice pick and Fred coughed one up. TO, Lee and Fred all had drops that would have been big plays, when we stop whiffing on these plays we will be true contenders. I really hope this team tightens up as the year goes on, I think we’ll be fine (fingers crossed).
Defend the Herd
back to the pats game
i think we could have easily won that WITH the leodis fumble if bell didnt kill 2 drives with penalties and owens didnt drop that third down conversion
we had 9 penalties for 71 yards vs the pats
we had 7 penalties fior 55 yards vs the bucs.
WE ARE MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION!
You can’t expect a player like Bell to be polished out the gate when he has only played 4 years of organized football, he is a project that could pay huge dividends. Give him til mid year beore trashing him for the Pats loss, I think Leodis is much more resposible, no fumble and 1 1st down and the win is in the books, I like the odds of a 1st down happening better than Leodis taking it to the house.
by The Buffalo Kid on Sep 21, 2009 1:57 AM EDT up reply actions
Good post.
Yes the offense is light years ahead of the past several seasons and all that is because of AVP. He understands offensive philosiphy better than Schonert or Fairchild. He is not perfect but a huge upgrade over the previous OCs.
Best call was the play action to TO he didn’t pull in. This was only the second time in three seasons I thought this is the perfect time for a play action pass. The last one was last year during the Chiefs game where Royal was wide open for the score but Trent overshot him.
This time Trent made the throw on the money, it was a real shame TO couldn’t pull it in, in the future he will pull it in more often than not.
Excellent timing on the call, by AVP, TO just didn’t execute.
I agree that Donte and Fred are worthy of game balls, but I think Trent is too. Freddy and Trent both made one bad mistake (INT, FUMBLE), but both did what was needed, I think Trent deserves a gameball along with Fred.
AVP is such a HUGE upgrade over Fairchild and Schonert, what I would really like to see, is for AVP to scrap the shotgun, empty backfield formation, in the red zone, I can’t think of one time it has worked in the past 3 years, Can you?
by The Buffalo Kid on Sep 21, 2009 1:34 AM EDT reply actions
I didn't see the game, so this is going by the numbers and the radio
but Fred Jackson had an amazing game. He averaged something like 5.8 ypc, which is simply astounding. I’m not saying Trent wasn’t good, and two nice TD passes are certainly something this offense could stand to see more often, but how many backs posted 160 yds and over 5.5 yards a pop? If you choose one offensive and one defensive player to give the ball to, I can’t see how Jackson is the wrong call on offense.
by Hopefulcynic on Sep 21, 2009 2:47 AM EDT up reply actions
I just think Trent and Fred both deserve one. I consider it a tie for a game ball so both should get one.
by The Buffalo Kid on Sep 21, 2009 2:49 AM EDT up reply actions
Fred
The OL was really giving him some big lanes to run through. Freddy also took advantage of a poor Bucs front 7, breaking tackles and eluding would-be tacklers. It was a good performance for the entire run offense from AVP to the OL to Fred. They’re all doing a great job picking up chunks of yards, and I’m loving the outside runs!
~K
"As the governor of Louisiana once said, the only way Chris Kelsay can lose his job is if he got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
Also, the play action deep pass to TO trent made was right on the money, If TO pulled it in, it wouldn’t have been a tie in my view. Trent would have got the gameball, Fred had no scores, but a great performance.
by The Buffalo Kid on Sep 21, 2009 2:55 AM EDT up reply actions
I like that the play action passes we’ve run so far aren’t just half-hearted play fakes. Trent is really selling the fakes and I think that’s what is going to give us success on these plays.
~K
"As the governor of Louisiana once said, the only way Chris Kelsay can lose his job is if he got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
Me too,
I have always thought the first skill Trent really needed to improve upon was selling play action, the next skill he needs to improve upon is hitting receivers in full stride when not running a deep fly.
He looks good with Fred Jackson as a receiver at hitting him in motion.
When Marshawn comes back, Trent really needs to work on passing the ball to Marshawn in full stride as I have yet to see him do it yet.
If he can get his timing down with passing to Marshawn out of the backfield in full stride, this could be one of the most explosive offenses in the NFL.
.
by The Buffalo Kid on Sep 22, 2009 3:02 AM EDT up reply actions
Correction
Best call was the play action to TO he didn’t pull in. This was only the second time in three seasons I thought this is the perfect time for a play action pass. The last one was last year during the Chiefs game where Royal was wide open for the score but Trent overshot him.
It should have said “This was only the second time in three seasons I thought this is the perfect time for a play action pass, that the Bills actually called it”, I have seen plent of other times to call a play action, but these two places were the few places they did.
by The Buffalo Kid on Sep 21, 2009 1:40 AM EDT reply actions
Brad Butler was carted off the field, too. He just waited until he got to the sideline to get on the cart.
Playing Realistic Optimist at Buffalo Rumblings since 2008. Ignoring the grumblings on Rumblings.
For the love of God
can we please start Chambers next week!?!? Scott was horrible, IMO, and I really don’t want him playing meaningful downs again anytime soon.
Get well Butler, get well soon!!
~K
"As the governor of Louisiana once said, the only way Chris Kelsay can lose his job is if he got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
I don’t think Scott was as bad as you are saying. I will wait for Ron to let me know, as I am sure you will.
Playing Realistic Optimist at Buffalo Rumblings since 2008. Ignoring the grumblings on Rumblings.
by MattRichWarren on Sep 21, 2009 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions
You are probably correct
but it sure looked like Scott was letting defenders get around him more than we’d like….
I still don’t want him starting though. I’d feel so much more comfortable with Chambers, which isn’t saying much. Maybe it is, actually.
~K
"As the governor of Louisiana once said, the only way Chris Kelsay can lose his job is if he got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
I prefer Chambers, myself.
Playing Realistic Optimist at Buffalo Rumblings since 2008. Ignoring the grumblings on Rumblings.
by MattRichWarren on Sep 21, 2009 2:15 PM EDT up reply actions
Great job by the Defense stopping the run.
It helped tremendously, jumping out to a 17 – 0 lead, still the bucs came out with their game plan with still 3+ quarters to play. Our D played great against a very good running offense. This is the biggest plus from the team’s perspective. I had to mention this because I was very concerned going in. This does answer alot of questions going forward. Still the 17-0 start did help.
Let’s hope these injuries aren’t season ending. I never like to see O-Lineman go down. Nothing against the others, the one thing we have going for us is the fact that everyone has contributed when their number is called so any injury is of big concern.
Anyone fearing the Saints next week. I can’t wait for this shoot out.
Excuses are a sign of weakness!!!!!!
Anyone fearing the Saints next week.
Yes
Drew Brees vs our pass rush and secondary could make for a long afternoon. This is a game we need to control the action, and one where we REALLY need to disrupt the QB’s timing. If Brees gets the same kind of time that Leftwich had, we’re d-e-d, dead….Fewell will have his work cut out for him this week…
~K
"As the governor of Louisiana once said, the only way Chris Kelsay can lose his job is if he got caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy."
hoping Leodis is back
for the Saints game to put it mildly. It’s going to be a tough game, but it looks like the Bills have a bit more offensive fight in them this time around.
This space held in honor of Robert Royal known to his friends as "Sweet Cream Style Corn" March 11 2006- February 26, 2009
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